New tool could provide insight into powerful future earthquakes
Houston, Feb 20 (PTI) An everyday quirk of physics could be a valuable new way to investigate the causes and potential for a large, damaging earthquake to happen, according to a study.
Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin, US, discovered that a frictional phenomenon could be key to understanding when and how violently a fault — a fracture or zone of fractures between two blocks of rock — moves.
The phenomenon, which explains why it takes more effort to shove a heavy box from a standstill than it does to keep it moving, governs how quickly the fault surfaces bond together, or heal, after an earthquake, they said.
